The Lost Fifth Avenue Estates Bldg - 787 Fifth Avenue

 

The New York Architect, 1907 (copyright expired)

On September 20, 1902, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported, "The Fifth Avenue Estate Co., owners of the plot at the corner of 5th av and 60th st, will immediately begin the erection of a 15-story hotel from plans by H. J. Hardenbergh."  (Henry J. Hardenberg would design the Plaza Hotel a block away three years later.)  The article placed the projected cost of construction at a staggering $2.5 million--more than $91 million by 2024 conversion, and mentioned, "The ground floor will be occupied by the Van Norden Trust Co."  (The revised plans would be 10 stories, instead of 15.)

Hardenbergh's scheme for the Fifth Avenue Estates Building was an exuberant and unlikely marriage of Italian Renaissance and Beaux Arts.  As it neared completion on June 25, 1904, the Record & Guide commented, "The exterior of light cream brick and white marble is harmonious with its neighbors, and does not kill the beautiful Metropolitan clubhouse opposite."  

A double-height portico supported by paired Ionic columns sheltered the entrance.  The three-story rusticated marble base and brick mid-section drew inspiration from the Italian Renaissance with a stone Juliette balcony and arched and triangular pediments.  Above the iron-railed balcony that girded the eighth floor, the viewer was transported from Italy to France.  The two-story mansard ornamented with Beaux Arts dormers and cresting commanded attention from blocks away.

A residential hotel, the Fifth Avenue Estates Building had one sprawling apartment per floor, which, said the Record & Guide, "are expected to bring extremely high rentals."  A description in Van Norden Advertising said, "no expense has been spared to make the apartments the finest in the city," and described:

The arrangement of rooms gives direct access from the Foyer to the Drawing-room, the Library and the Dining-room, without passing the Bedroom doors, thus isolating the private portions of the suite; although, if desired, the rooms on Fifth Avenue may, by a slight rearrangement, be used for Living Rooms.

There were three servant rooms in each apartment--the cook's room, which adjoined the kitchen, and two maids rooms.  In the mansard level was a butler's room for each tenant, an arrangement that kept the domestic staffs separated by gender.  Van Norden Advertising noted, "Each apartment has its own trunk room, coal storage, and laundry situated outside of the suite itself."

The expansive apartments had the amenities of a private house.  The New York Architect, 1907 (copyright expired)

The Fifth Avenue Estates Building filled with wealthy, socially prominent tenants.  Among the first were the Edward C. Wallace family, brothers John Schaffer and Howard Phipps, and Anne Weightman Walker.

Edward Copeland Wallace and his wife, the former Antoinette Knapp, had a son Edward K.  Antoinette was the daughter of Joseph P. Knapp, the founder of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.  Wallace was president of the Milliken Bros., one of the world's largest iron and steel manufacturers.  Its plant on Staten Island engulfed 175 acres.  

Wallace and his son, who was 14 years old at the time, had been involved in a highly publicized trial in June 1902.  Edward C. Wallace drove his automobile "at fully thirty miles an hour," according to The New York Times, in Nyack, New York, terrifying the horse pulling the buggy of Edward G. Lovatt and his wife.  The horse bolted, overturning the buggy and injuring the passengers.

Vehicular speed would have a more tragic outcome for the Wallace family in the spring of 1906.  Edward K. Wallace, who was a sophomore at Yale, and classmate Caleb E. Bragg were racing their motorcycles on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx.  Wallace's front wheel struck the streetcar tracks and he was thrown over the handlebars to the pavement.  The New-York Tribune reported that his skull was fractured and that Bragg "picked him up and carried him to Fordham Hospital in an unconscious condition."

Three days later, The Evening World reported, "His father has been with him since the time of the accident almost continuously."  The article said, "Officials of the institution refuse to say that the young man cannot live the day out, but offer no encouragement."  Edward K. Wallace died on May 3.  The New-York Tribune noted, "He was wealthy, having nearly $1,500,000 in his own right, and being heir, it is said, to nearly $10,000,000 more."

Anne Weightman Walker was the widow of Robert J. C. Walker.  Upon his death in 1903, she inherited $10 million, and when her father, William Weightman (known as "the quinine king"), died the following year, she received another $60 million, real estate and a partnership in his drug company.  Her total cash inheritance within the 12-month period would equal $2.5 billion today.  The New York Times referred to Anne Weightman Walker as "one of the wealthiest women in the world."

Anne Weightman Walker Penfield, from the collection of the Library of Congress.

On February 26, 1908, Anne Walker was married in St. Patrick's Cathedral to Frederic Courtland Penfield by Archbishop John Murphy Farley.  The New York Times noted that Penfield, "for a number of years was American Minister Resident and Consul General to Egypt.  As an author he is known chiefly by his books, 'East of Suez' and 'Present Day Egypt.'"  The newspaper reported, "In celebration of her marriage Mrs. Penfield announced through her attorney in Philadelphia last night, gifts aggregating $1,000,000 to relatives and institutions."

"Immediately after the ceremony a wedding breakfast was served at the bride's home, 787 Fifth Avenue," said the article.  The couple left the city, possibly going to Anne's Philadelphia home, Ravenhill, for two weeks.  The New York Times reported, "at the end of March [they] will sail for Europe for a stay of several months in Italy, France, and Spain.  On their return they will live at 787 Fifth Avenue."

The Penfield apartment was a center of entertaining.  On January 16, 1910, for instance, The Sun reported, "Mrs. Frederic Courtland Penfield, one of the wealthiest matrons in town, will give a big tea on Tuesday afternoon at her home, 787 Fifth avenue.  There will be singing by members of the Metropolitan and Manhattan opera companies.  Mr. and Mrs. Penfield passed last winter in the Orient and had several guests with them on their tour."

On March 12, 1911, The Sun reported, "Countess de Sibour is the guest of Mrs. Frederick [sic] Penfield at 787 Fifth avenue and will remain until she leaves for Europe a fortnight hence."

Frederic Courtland Penfield, around 1913.  from the collection of the Library of Congress.

The Penfields left their apartment in 1913 after Frederic was named United States Ambassador to Austria-Hungary by President Woodrow Wilson.  The couple moved to Vienna, leaving their apartment in the Fifth Avenue Estates Building in the hands of selected servants.

In the meantime, John Shaffer Phipps and the former Margarita Celia Grace lived here; as did his brother Howard.  They were eldest and youngest sons, respectively, of steel magnate Henry Phipps and Annie Childs Shaffer, whose magnificent mansion was at 6 East 87th Street.  

John and Margarita had married on November 4, 1903, and had four children, John Henry Howard, Hubert Beaumont, Margaret Helen, and Michael.  Phipps earned his law degree at Harvard in 1899.  He had purchased a farm in Old Westbury, Long Island in 1901, and after marrying Margarita, hired George A. Crawley to design their sumptuous mansion there, Westbury House.

Westbury House was the country home of the John Shaffer Phippses.  photo by Etsfma

Howard, who would not marry until 1931, was a director in the Mellon National Bank and the Union Trust Company of Pittsburgh.  Following his graduation from Yale in 1907, he purchased the 127-acre estate adjoining Westbury House.  Like his brother, he was a member of the Long Island horse set, and both exhibited their thoroughbreds in the annual National Horse Show Association of America.  He occupied the existing house on the Long Island estate during the summer season until his marriage to Harriet Dyer Price, after which they hired architect Lewis Greenleaf Adams to design their mansion, Erchless.

An advertisement in The Sun on August 26, 1917 offered a 13-room, 4-bath apartment for $9,000 a year (equal to about $17,800 per month today).   Three months earlier, the Penfields had returned to their apartment.  The war in Europe had necessitated their leaving Vienna.  When they arrived on May 16, Penfield joked with reporters, "There are only two to whom I can tell the complete story of my diplomatic experience, and they are President Wilson and the Secretary of State.  If I do otherwise, I'll be fired."

Prior to the severance of diplomatic relations, Penfield had "represented the interests of nearly all the Allied Powers in Vienna for a considerable period," said The Sun.  In appreciation, on January 28, 1920, the French Consul-General, Gason Liebert presented Penfield with "a Sevres vase almost four feet high with an inscribed bronze base" on behalf of the French Government.

Shortly after their return to the United States, the Penfields began leasing Hopewell Hall in the Thousand Islands each summer season.  On June 11, 1922, the New York Herald reported the couple "have again leased Hopewell Hall."  But this year they would not occupy the mansion.  Three days later the newspaper reported, "Frederic Courtland Penfield, who was Ambassador to Austria-Hungary just prior to the war, is under medical care in his home, 787 Fifth avenue."  The article said, "he has congestion of the brain, which may have been induced by his strenuous diplomatic activities of the days before the break with Austria-Hungary."

Frederic Courtland Penfield died in the Fifth Avenue Estates apartment on June 19, 1922.  His funeral was held in St. Vincent's Ferrer Catholic Church on Lexington Avenue.  On June 27, The New York Times reported that his estate "is mentioned as '$200,000 and upward,' but it is said that the actual value will amount to several millions of dollars."  The bulk of the estate was left to Anne.  Among the other bequests, he left $25,000 (nearly half a million in 2024 dollars) to one of the couple's long-time servants, Mary Quigley.

The Fifth Avenue Estates Building in 1938.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1959, architect H. I. Feldman filed plans for a 35-story office building on the side of "several" structures, including the Fifth Avenue Estate Building.  Although that building was never erected, in 1963 the 18-floor and penthouse apartment building, the Park V, designed by Emery Roth & Sons was completed on the site.

photograph by Godsfriendchuck

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